CHICO -- When Bryony "Bunny" English accepted an assignment to teach overseas, she probably knew she was in for an adventure.

But the 23-year-old couldn't know how big an adventure it would be until the earth began to tremble under her feet.

The Pleasant Valley High School graduate flew into Chico Friday afternoon after teaching English in Koga, Japan for the last eight months.

"It is good to be home," said the clearly exhausted young woman as she was welcomed at the Chico Municipal Airport by her parents, Lily and Paul English, and a small group of friends.

English was teaching in Koga last Friday when the magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit about 310 miles east, off the Japanese coast.

"It's been a really, really stressful two weeks," she said, then quickly corrected the time frame to "one week," adding, "It seems longer."

She said there were daily aftershocks that added to the stress, but Koga is well away from the coast and therefore avoided the tsunami that did most of the structural damage.

While saying the threat associated with the damaged nuclear power plants, about 140 miles from Koga, have been overstated by the media, she quipped, "I'm not glowing. I was supposed to be glowing."

Stress was a shared experience with English and her parents.

Thursday night a week ago, which was Friday Japan time, her parents were about to shut off the television and call it a night, when CNN flashed a bulletin about a massive quake off the coast of northern Japan.

Her mother turned to her husband and said, "She's not in the north, is she?"

When her husband said their daughter was in the north, Lily English responded, "Holy moley!"

Paul English sent an e-mail to his daughter, and she responded almost immediately, saying everything was under control at her end.

"I don't think she really understood the enormity of the situation," Lily English said, but her daughter thinks the world is getting a warped picture of what is going on in Japan.

The young traveler said Japanese buildings are designed to withstand quakes. She said the buildings shake, but they don't collapse.

She also said she was in Tokyo "two days after the quake, and everything was fine."

Even if the buildings are standing where they weren't destroyed by the tsunami, that doesn't mean life is easy in Japan right now.

The people are running out of food, and there is a level of concern about the nuclear plants, but, "There is no chaos."

"If this was in America, people would be fighting for the last bag of rice," she said, but in general the Japanese population is calm and even "polite."

While her teaching contract was scheduled to last until the end of March, English said she decided to come home because of her parents' concerns.

She explained the hardest part of the entire experience was leaving her Japanese friends behind. She said there are Japanese households where she is part of the family.

English said it was like saying, "Bye! Good luck with the nuclear thing." Then her voice broke and the tears began to flow.

Her father said he expects his University of San Diego graduate daughter to spend a couple of weeks at home before she takes off for another trip.

Staff writer Roger H. Aylworth can be reached at 896-7762 or raylworth@chicoer.com.